Sunday, September 21, 2014

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association
(PALEA), their families and supporters from the labor and social movement,
including the church gathered today to celebrate its 68th founding
anniversary.

PALEA was founded on September 21, 1946. And amid the backdrop of the complete buyback
of the flag carrier by the Lucio Tan group, PALEA is hopeful the PAL-PALEA settlement
agreement ending the labor dispute last year is finally implemented.

“Now that the ownership row in Philippine Airlines is over,
we expect that there will be no more obstacles to completing the settlement
agreement that guaranteed re-employment of PALEA members,” said PALEA President
Gerry Rivera.

In November of last year, PAL
and PALEA signed an accord to settle the labor dispute arising from the
implementation of an outsourcing program that led to the retrenchment of more
than 2,000 employees in September 2011. Meanwhile PAL reported a US$1.49
billion profit in the second quarter of this year, reversing a trend of losses
for the past several years.

The 600 PALEA members who resisted the PAL outsourcing plan
and are the subject of the agreement attended the noontime mass led by Manila
Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo at Our Lady of the Airways Parish. Pabillo and other church leaders held regular
masses at the picket line during the height of PALEA’s resistance against outsourcing.

Rivera said the anniversary theme was extremely serious but at
the same time fun-filled and family-centered.

“After all those trying years PALEA remains a solid family.
And it is labor dignity and our love of the flag carrier that continue to
consolidate our ranks,” added Rivera.

Leaders and representatives from Partido Manggagawa (PM) and
Nagkaisa! labor coalition, student groups and community organizations attended
the celebration to affirm their commitment to PALEA’s fight.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

For doing nothing
during the last four years, a second power crisis is materializing under the
watch of the second Aquino, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a
statement.

“Had the
government acted in advance, one of which was going back into generation as
recommended by the 19thEPIRA
Status Report of 2011, the President would not have been begging for emergency
powers from Congress which the same body that enacted the failed Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001,” said PM spokesperson Wilson Fortaleza.

Fortaleza said that as early as 2010, red flags on
the supply side have already been raised by experts and by the government
itself. Even the labor sector under the coalition Nagkaisa! had been
calling on the government since 2012 to decisively address the twin problems of
high cost and diminishing power supply.

“Yet the
government opted to stay in the sidelines, waiting for the promised megawatts
from private players to come online. But to no avail,” lamented Fortaleza

“Now PNoy has
placed himself in a situation where his mother once failed: Presiding over a
power crisis in a panicky and very costly manner,” explained Fortaleza.

The group said
that since there is no more time to build an additional 600-700MW capacity to
fill in the annual deficit beginning next year, the government is left with no
option but to revert back to provisional and very costly mode of power
contracting, similar to the notorious IPP contracts done by the Aquino and
Ramos regimes.

But before
Congress expressly grant PNoy emergency powers, the group said it is but
judicious to declare first that EPIRA and privatization failed.

Second, the group
said an audit of all the plants’ capacities as per contracts must be done first
to determine the actual numbers since there are reports that power plants are
not running on their full capacities or are not properly maintained.

Third, Malacanang
must also show the real cost of the planned contract that it will enter into,
for how long, to whom, and the actual terms it is willing to commit.

Fourth, with or
without emergency, the government should strongly push for a shift to renewable
energy.

And lastly,
emergency powers must not be granted to the Executive if it has no clear,
effective and doable plan to strategically address this oppressive, decade-old
energy crisis.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Amidst the buyout deal at Philippine Airlines (PAL), the
Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), the ground crew union of
the flag carrier, today called on management to respect the agreement settling
the long-running outsourcing dispute. The union expressed hope that a
conclusion to the corporate battle over PAL will lead to the full execution of
the settlement agreement as the prolonged buyout talks have delayed its
implementation.

Last Monday, media reported that San Miguel Corp. and the
Lucio Tan group had signed a deal for the latter to buy back the 49% share of
the former for US$1 billion to be paid within one week.

“We expect that PAL management would faithfully and fully implement
the terms of the agreement resolving the outsourcing dispute. Anything less
would mean the resurgence of labor troubles at the flag carrier that could
threaten PAL’s return to profitability,” averred Gerry Rivera, PALEA president
and Partido ng Manggagawa vice chair.

In November of last year, PAL and PALEA signed an accord to settle
the labor dispute arising from the implementation of an outsourcing program
that led to the retrenchment of more than 2,000 employees in September 2011. Meanwhile
PAL reported a US$1.49 billion profit in the second quarter of this year, reversing
a trend of losses for the past several years.

“PALEA has reliably complied with its part of the settlement
agreement such as dismantling the picketline and terminating labor cases. Whoever
is in control of PAL, we demand that management do the same,” Rivera added.

The settlement provides for
the rehiring as regular workers of some 600PALEA members who were retrenched in 2011 but refused
to accept the outsourcing scheme. Theagreement also grants an improved separation package.

Rivera asserts that the
resolution of the outsourcing dispute is one of the factors that led to PAL’s
profitability this year. In the two-year long pendency of the outsourcing
issue, PALEA’s supporters have called for a boycott of PAL.

PALEA’s struggle against contractualization
has been a trailblazer campaign that has influenced industrial relations in the
country. The Labor Department issued new guidelines on subcontracting called DO
18-A in the wake of the PALEA protest and the fractious labor movement united
in support of the embattled PAL union.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

A high-end café and restaurant
located at the heart of Malate district in Manila is getting the ire of organized labor
after its management sacked several workers upon learning of their move to
organize a union some few months back.

A picket led by Partido Manggagawa
(PM) was held today at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila demanding the
reinstatement of Edaville Minoza, Jesus Porlas, Parsamson Hadjirul, Edgar
Pancrudo, Stephen De Leon, and Romy Castolo. All of them were dismissed
by the company in January and May of this year without valid reasons and
apparently for initiating the formation of a union which is a guaranteed labor
right.

According to PM, Hizon’s/ZA’s Café
in Malate is a cozy place where celebrities and Manila’s VIPs come as regular guests.
But its workers, 54 in all, are unjustly treated by the company since the time
of their employment. Most of them had been working in the Café for more
than ten years yet they are not enrolled in the social security system,
Philhealth and Pag-ibig. They likewise are underpaid, enjoy no job security
and have no union representation.

“This company violates almost all of
the core labor standards. Thus the labor department cannot play deaf and
blind to this blatant breaches in labor rights,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

A notice of strike, on the basis of
management interference, illegal dismissal and union busting, was filed before
the labor department by Hizon workers in January after the first batch of
termination. The case is still pending before the National Conciliation
and Mediation Board (NCMB).

Magtubo said the labor department
has the obligation to order the immediate reinstatement of Hizon workers as
their dismissal was clearly a retaliatory action by the management against
legitimate union activities.

He added that it is also the duty
of the State, the labor department in particular, to enforce labor law
compliance to all companies however big, powerful, or small they are.

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The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

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